Chasing the Stars (16 page)

Not my favourite memory.

And she’d had to patch me up a couple of times before that too.

More harsh memories.

‘Well?’ the doctor prompted.

‘Well, I keep breaking out in hot sweats, my body seems to flash hot and cold at odd moments and there’s something wrong with my appetite,’ I replied unwillingly. I couldn’t do this. ‘Look. You know what? Coming here was a mistake. I’m sure it’s nothing. I’ll sort it.’

I was already getting up off the bed, but the doctor pushed me back onto it. ‘You can stay put until I’ve fully scanned you,’ said Doctor Liana.

With a sigh, I stayed put.

‘Any other symptoms?’

‘I’m having trouble sleeping and concentrating.’

‘Anything else?’

Yes, but none I cared to mention out loud, even to the doctor. ‘No, I don’t think so.’

Doctor Liana gave me a studied look as she continued to scan slowly up and down my body. She shook her head. ‘My scanner says there’s nothing wrong with you. In fact, you’re in rude health.’

‘Which is exactly what I told you a minute ago,’ I pointed out. ‘I’m sorry to have wasted your time.’

I tried to get off the bed but once again the doctor pushed me back down. ‘Not so fast,’ she said. ‘Just because nothing is coming up on my scanner doesn’t mean that there isn’t something going on with you.’

‘Like what? I thought scanners could pick up ninety-nine per cent of ailments and illnesses.’

‘When do the majority of these symptoms of yours happen? Any particular time of the day or night?’

‘Nope.’

‘When you’re doing a particular activity?’

I shook my head.

‘After you’ve eaten any particular type of food? Could it be the onset of an allergy?’

I continued to shake my head.

‘In the presence of any particular person?’

The head shaking stopped. I stared at the doctor. ‘Pardon?’ I mumbled.

‘Ah!’ Doctor Liana said with satisfaction.

What the . . .? ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ A deep frown cut a trench between my eyebrows.

‘Of course you don’t.’ Doctor Liana winked at me. ‘Now in my expert opinion, if these symptoms have only recently started, you’re either menopausal – which I’m inclined to rule out at this stage – or someone on board is causing your palpitations.’

‘Seriously? That’s the best explanation you’ve got? I thought you were a doctor, not a quack,’ I told her frostily.

Ignoring my comment, the doctor continued her speculations, a big-ass smile on her face. ‘Now I’m assuming it’s not one of us settlers who’s turning you on. After all, you’ve been around us for years. There are only two new people in the equation – Aidan and Olivia. So which one of them is heating you up? Tell all. Enquiring minds want to know.’ Doctor Liana grinned at me, delighted by her ridiculous deductions. She was way off base.

‘Well, thanks for your time, doctor.’ This time I jumped off the bed and there was nothing in the universe that could’ve got me back onto it.

‘My advice?’ Doctor Liana called after me as I made my way out of the medi bay. ‘Figure out which of the two of them is doing it for you if you haven’t already and then do something about it.’

I left the medi bay with the doctor’s laughter ringing in my ears.

The following morning, I woke up feeling more at peace with myself and the galaxy than I’d felt in a long, long time. After a shower, I headed onto the bridge with a renewed sense of purpose. I could do this. Getting to know the new crew and helping them get to Mendela Prime was the right thing to do, even though my brother might believe otherwise. I’d worry about what would happen after we reached Mendela Prime, when we reached that particular bridge.

I could do this.

I spent the final hour of my shift going through the profiles of the new crew, memorising faces, names and assignments. The whole shift was pretty uneventful and I was happy for it to stay that way, but ten minutes before the shift ended, the ship’s alert sounded, making me jump. I hated that din. It was cacophonous and deafening and never boded well.

‘What?’ I asked Aidan, my tone terse. ‘The Mazon?’

‘No, not the Mazon,’ said Aidan, his expression puzzled. ‘Three of the refugees – Mei DuLac, Jaxon Ramsey and Saul Turner – are in one of the cargo hold airlocks and the evacuation protocol has been activated from in there.’

The full 3-D images of the three he’d just named revolved slowly before us. I recognized all of them. Two of them I’d spoken to only the day before.

Dahell?

‘One of them activated the evacuation sequence?’ I asked, astounded.

Aidan studied his console. ‘As far as I can tell.’

‘Why would they do that? Does one or all of them have a death wish? Override it. Shut it down,’ I said.

‘I can’t. It’s been isolated and jammed. I can’t shut it down from here.’

I stared at my brother. ‘How long?’

‘One minute, thirty-three seconds.’

Oh my God!

‘What’s going on?’ said the commander.

Damn it!

I was already running for the door. ‘Three of your friends are in the cargo hold airlock and they’ve activated the evacuation sequence. If it’s not shut down, they’re going to be jettisoned out into space. Aidan, stay here and do what you can to override it.’

‘I’ll stay here too and help,’ Hedda called after us.

I raced along the corridor towards the lift. Nathan was at my side. Sam, Anjuli and the commander were running behind us. As we entered the lift, I said, ‘Cargo hold. Emergency mode.’

Emergency mode ensured the lift went straight to the requested destination instead of stopping to pick up others who might have requested the lift. No one spoke during the seconds it took to get from the upper deck to the lower deck. As soon as the lift door opened, I ran out into the cargo hold. I saw them immediately. My heart leaped into my mouth, then plunged down to my boots. On the other side of the cargo hold, three of the colonists – Mei, Jaxon and Saul – were inside the airlock which separated the hold from the vast space beyond, and were banging frantically on the polyglass panel of the door. The warning indicator above the door indicated they had twenty-five seconds left before the outer hull door opened and counting down. The airlock was in evacuation mode, something that was only supposed to happen when the ship was in imminent danger or on my explicit instructions. The warning siren screamed throughout the ship. Inside the echo-chamber of the cargo hold, it was ear-splitting. I sprinted across the cargo bay, moving like the devil himself was chasing me. The absolute terror on the faces of the three colonists spurred me on to run even faster.

They were in trouble.

Mei, Saul and Jaxon began to float off the ground as the gravity unit inside the airlock ceased to function. I raced, my legs and arms pumping, but I was still several metres away from the airlock controls. The others were right behind me, sprinting across the hold. A warning alert from above the inner airlock door rang out, its continuous whine clashing dissonantly with the siren sounding throughout the ship. I was ten metres away when the outer hull door began to slowly open, revealing the vast inky blackness beyond.

‘Aidan, abort the airlock outer door opening. Keep the nano-field in place. Aidan, do you hear me?’ I cried out. ‘And shut off the damned siren.’

The din sounding throughout the ship ceased. Only the constant warning wail from above the airlock itself could now be heard in the cargo hold.

‘Why did you do it? Why did you activate the evacuation sequence?’ I shouted.

‘We didn’t!’ Mei cried out, grabbing for the guard rail which ran waist high around the perimeter of the airlock.

‘We came in here to talk. Only to talk,’ said Jaxon. ‘The door came down.’

‘The alarm started.’

‘What’s happening?’

They were all talking over each other in a panicked rush to be heard.

‘Hit the abort button,’ I urged, pointing to where it was situated next to the door on their side.

‘I have,’ said Jaxon, smashing his palm against it again and again. ‘It’s not working.’

‘Help us!’ Mei gasped.

‘Do s-something.’

‘Get us out . . .’

The three were free floating, only changing direction when they bumped into each other. The outer hull door slid slowly but inexorably higher.

‘Aidan, damn it. Don’t let the nano-field drop. Close the hull door!’ I shouted.

But still it kept rising.

The nano-field was a force field or wall made of pure energy that activated whenever a hull door opened or we had a hull breach, but here it would only last for a few seconds because as far as the computer was concerned this was a requested standard procedure. The nano-field was going to drop the moment the outer door was fully open, sucking out all the air in there and everything else that wasn’t firmly secured. Mei’s knuckles were white from gripping so tightly onto the guard rail. Jaxon’s eyes pleaded with me to do something. Anything.

‘Take off something,’ I urged desperately. ‘Tie it around yourselves and tie the other end to the guard rail.’

My fingers flew across the control panel outside the door as I input the command code to override the hull door opening. The code was ignored. I tried again. I had to stop it before—

Too late.

The nano-field dropped.

And just like that they all vanished, sucked out into the vacuum of space in a second or less. Shocked, I stared into the empty airlock.

They were all gone.

Next to me, Anjuli fell to her knees, burying her face in her hands. Someone was talking behind me, asking questions, but I couldn’t hear a word. I just continued to stare into the empty airlock, totally stunned. My friends . . . gone. I wouldn’t wish that kind of death on my worst enemy. The airlock warning alert stopped abruptly. The silence in the cargo hold was more deafening than the siren had been. Slowly the outer hull door slid down. The venting system gave a faint hiss as the airlock began to fill with air again from the vents above the door.

I was still trying to grasp what had just happened. I’d seen people die on Callisto – mining incidents and accidents happened all the time – but what I’d just seen was on a whole different level. During the Barros 5 assault, we’d all been terrified because none of us knew whether or not we’d survive. That uncertainty in itself had given us hope. But the terror on Mei’s, Jaxon’s and Saul’s faces as the door opened . . . They knew they were going to die and there wasn’t a damned thing they or anyone else could do about it. The look on Jaxon’s face was something I’d never forget. I was helpless, totally useless. I was so sick and tired of feeling that way.

‘Aidan, damn it, what just happened?’ Vee called out. ‘Aidan, answer me.’

A moment’s silence and then Aidan’s voice rang out in the cargo hold. His voice surrounded us on all sides, strangely disturbing in the echoing silence.

‘I don’t know, Vee. I’m still trying to figure that out. Somehow, someone hacked into the ship’s computer and gave the evacuation command when the three refugees were in the airlock, and whoever did it was skilled enough to make it look like the command came from
inside
the airlock.’

Vee was already marching back towards the lift. ‘Aidan, where did the command actually originate?’ she asked.

‘I have tracked it down to a utility dispenser in the mess hall,’ said Aidan.

What? A utility dispenser? That couldn’t be right. Those things were given verbal commands and then they created whatever had been asked for. End of story. How on Callisto had someone managed to interfere with the ship’s programming using one of those?

I ran to fall into step beside Vee. Mum and Sam were right behind us.

‘Who’s currently in there?’ asked Vee.

A second or two passed before Aidan answered. ‘Twelve of the refugees are in there at the moment, including the two children, Simone and Khari.’

‘No one is supposed to be able to open the outer hull door except you and me,’ said Vee.

‘One of the colonists has found a way to bypass my security protocols and access the system,’ Aidan replied. ‘The command to open the airlock outer door was definitely input from a dispenser.’